This invention relates generally to pallets for supporting materials, and more particularly to a protector or guard device which is arranged to be readily disposed about the periphery of a plurality of pallets to protect the pallets and persons coming into contact with the pallets.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,294 (Depew) there is disclosed a pallet construction making use of protective members fabricated out of metal, plastic or other impact resistant material for engaging two opposed end portions of the pallet to protect against damage. The protective members are in the form of upper and lower elongated bars and associated cap portions. The protective members are arranged to be secured in place to the pallet, via nails or screws, with the bars extending flush with the top and bottom surfaces of the upper and lower deck-boards, and with the cap portions embracing the end portions ofthe stringers or other deck-board supporting components. The cap portions are secured to the embraced portions beneath the deck-boards. Flanges may be provided on the cap portions at the end of the protective members for direct securement to the upper surface of the deck-boards and to the under surface of the underlying portion of the pallet. With pallets of block type construction, side protective members may be included to be nailed, screwed or otherwise secured to sides of the pallet, whereupon the periphery of the pallet is protected.
Other pallet protectors have been disclosed in the patent literature. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,899 (Steffen) discloses a protective element for a pallet in the form of a plate, preferably formed of sheet metal for a fixation to deleting stringer of the pallet. The plate-like element is preferably nailed to the pallet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,175 (Whatley, II) also discloses a protective plate for use with a pallet. The plates may include perforations or holes to receive fasteners such as nails for fixing the plate to the pallet. The plates are disclosed as being fabricated from sheet metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,629 (Ginnow) discloses an end cap construction for protecting the ends of the stringers of a pallet. Each of the end cap construction units is a generally U-shaped member having plural apertures therein.
While the aforementioned prior art devices may be generally suitable for their intended purposes of protecting the pallet from damage by a fork-lift apparatus used to lift and transport the pallet, they still leave much to be desired from one or more of the following standpoints, e.g., inability to cover the entire periphery of the pallet, complexity of construction, inability to be readily removed from the pallet.
In my copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/411,762 filed on Oct. 4, 1999, entitled Pallet Protector Assembly, whose disclosure is incorporated by reference herein there is disclosed a pallet protector assembly which overcomes many of the disadvantages of the prior art. That pallet protector assembly is arranged to be used on a conventional pallet, e.g., a wooden pallet having a plurality of stringers disposed generally parallel to one another between upper and lower decks formed of plural spaced-apart deck-boards. The pallet has a pair of sides and a pair of ends. The pallet protector assembly comprising plural, e.g., four, elongated bar-like, hollow plastic, guard members, each which has an opposed pair of end portions. Each end portion of each guard member includes a respective connector. Both of the connectors of two of the guard member are bulbous key-like projections. Both of the connectors of the other two of the guard members are mating key-slot shaped recess. The bulbous key-like projections of the two guard members are arranged to be releasably received within respective recesses of the other two guard member to releasably secure the guard members to one another to form a self-supporting frame encircling the periphery of the pallet. The connectors forming the guard members are resistant to accidental disconnection from each other so that the protector assembly when in place is resistant to accidental disconnection. However, any guard member can be readily purposely removed from the others to provide access to any portion of the pallet, e.g., access to an end portion to enable the pallet to be lifted by the tines of a conventional fork-lift machine.
For some applications plural pallets may be disposed in an array adjacent one another. For example, two pallets may be disposed end-to-end or side-by-side, four pallets may be disposed in 2 by 2 array, six pallets may be disposed end-to-end or side-to-side, etc. While my aforementioned pallet protector assembly is suitable for protecting a single pallet, it still leaves something to be desired from the standpoint of protecting the periphery of an array of pallets.